Zesty Lemon Sunshine Play Dough

It is great for strengthening large and small muscles in the hand which is particularly useful for my bendy hypermobile girls whose hands get tired easily when writing and colouring.

Play dough builds esteem. There is no right or wrong way to play with it, therefore it encourages children like Minty who worry about making mistakes in other creative activities to get involved.

Play dough encourages communication, whether they are talking to each other or chatting away to themselves.

It fosters imaginative play. There are not many toys available that can be anything, a cake, a pet, crazy hair etc…

Why my children love play dough:

“It smells good and if we ask mummy with our smily faces, she puts glitter in it…..”

This week I made a batch of my Zesty Sunshine Play Dough. This dough smells divine and will make your house and hands smell like summer.

The basic play dough recipe:

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup of salt

4tbsp cream of tarter

2 cups water

2 tbsp oil (any oil will work but think about allergies if you are using a nut based oil)

Mix the ingredients together in a large pan

Place over a medium heat, stirring constantly until it looks like thick mashed potato.

Turn it out onto a very lightly oiled surface and kneed until it is soft and smooth.

At this point you can add any colour, texture or scent you want. For my Zesty Sunshine Dough, I added the zest (grated very finely) of two lemons and kneaded it into the dough. It smells amazing and makes the dough a lovely light yellow without having to add any colouring.

I have tried various playdough recipes and this one is my favourite. Cream of tarter is not something everyone will have in the cupboards but it can be bought easily and cheaply from most supermarkets.

This dough will last for weeks without drying out if you keep it in an airtight tub or jar.

Comments

That’s pretty close to the recipe I have. It was given to me by the preschool teacher many years ago–they always used homemade, and moms would go in a rotation to make a new batch every week or so. I don’t know if you have this in the UK, but what we would do was use a little of the unsweetened packet of Kool-Aid or Wylers drink mix to add color and scent. Not as natural as the lemon zest, but easy to mix in.

I have seen the kool-aid recipes on Pinterest. We don’t have it over here. I was thinking of trying powdered Jelly (jello) to see if it worked in a similar way. I also happen to have a packet of sparkly jelly powder in the cupboard, and you know how much I love glitter!!!!! It might be a bit sticky…. But I am up for a challenge. X

Oh no! Have you tried this one? The main trick is stirring constantly whilst it cooks, this makes sure it isn’t lumping or unevenly cooked and is also great exercise. I hope you find a recipe that works for you. X

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